An investigator stands atop the stump of an old-growth tree felled illegally in Olympic National Forest by timber thief Reid Johnston.

An investigator stands atop the stump of an old-growth tree felled illegally in Olympic National Forest by timber thief Reid Johnston.

Photo: U.S. Attorney's Office For The Western District Of Washington

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An investigator examines old-growth timber stolen from Olympic National Forest by Reid Johnston.

An investigator examines old-growth timber stolen from Olympic National Forest by Reid Johnston.

Photo: U.S. Attorney's Office For The Western District Of Washington

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Old-growth timber stolen from Olympic National Forest by timber thief Reid Johnston is pictured in a Justice Department photo.

Old-growth timber stolen from Olympic National Forest by timber thief Reid Johnston is pictured in a Justice Department photo.

Photo: U.S. Attorney's Office For The Western District Of Washington

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Washington old-growth poacher stole a ‘national antiquity’

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What’s a tree worth?

More exactly, what is the worth of 102 trees grown for decades or, in at least one case, centuries on public land?

A price otherwise answered in dollars will likely be paid in one year in prison by Reid B. Johnston, a Brinnon logger caught stealing protected, old-growth trees from national forest land on the Olympic Peninsula.

Next month, the federal judge who sentenced Johnston said Friday, Brinnon will learn how much he will have to pay in restitution.

The stolen trees have already had a value set at $288,500. But federal prosecutors contend what Johnston destroyed to take them was worth incalculably more.

“The true value of these resources cannot be measured by board feet or the number of maple blocks or fir logs to be harvested from each tree,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Diggs told the court.

“The magnitude of the loss can fairly be analogized to losing a national antiquity or cultural heritage resource. … The defendant’s greed robbed our region of one of its most precious resources – trees which will take centuries to return.”

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For his part, Johnson, a 41-year-old new father, claims to have turned his life around and is ready to live lawfully. Through his attorney, he has asked to be sentenced to the 32 days he has already spent in jail.

Have pleaded guilty to damaging government property, Johnston admitted to cutting down more than a dozen trees in the Rocky Brook area of Olympic National Forest, located near Dabob Bay in the east side of the Peninsula.

Johnston, a logger who previously made his living harvesting maple trees used to make guitars and violins, felled the trees in question while logging a parcel that had previously been logged 25 years ago. Prosecutors note Johnston had ample experience logging on the Olympic Peninsula and knew well that the trees he was cutting were old growth.

U.S. Forest Service workers launched an investigation after learning the trees had been cut and removed from the national forest. Investigators determined trees had been taken from hundreds of feet past the boundary line.

Among the trees taken was a 330-year-old Douglas fir, which Johnston attempted to sell two years after the theft. Investigators seized the tree in January 2010, and ultimately determined 102 trees had been illegally cut on federal lands next to Johnston’s parents’ property.

Several of the trees cut illegally provided habitat for the marbled murrelet, an endangered seabird that nests in old growth timber. All of the trees are believed to have been at least 80 years old.

Writing the court, Diggs described Johnston’s theft as the largest timber theft prosecuted in Western Washington during the past decade.

The thefts represent a small piece of the total theft of trees from public lands, estimated by the Forest Service to amount to $1 billion annually. Diggs suggested theft from public lands has “reached near epidemic proportions.”

“The vast public lands in the Pacific Northwest, coupled with a minimal law enforcement presence, effectively prevent agencies from using routine patrols or other traditional surveillance techniques to deter others from stealing,” Diggs told the court.

Leveling an allegation left unaddressed by the defense, Diggs described Johnston as a drug addict who stole to support his addiction. Johnston has also been accused – though never convicted – in four other timber thefts; he was convicted of harvesting and selling shellfish from a beach closed due to health concerns.

Asking that her client be sentenced to a term well below the suggested range, federal public defender Miriam Schwartz suggested any further confinement will simply derail the progress Johnston has made since his arrest.

“Considering the compelling need for Mr. Johnston to find employment to support his young baby and satisfy the restitution obligation in this case, the defense believes that more time behind prison bars would be counterproductive,” Schwartz told the court.

“Reid Johnston has learned his lesson and intends to live a responsible and law-abiding life in the future.”

Diggs dismissed claims that Johnston’s crime stemmed from a well-intentioned error and noted that, unlike some who might be driven to tree theft, Johnston has other skills and had other opportunities open to him.

Johnston was a licensed real estate agent and has a college degree, as well as a history of legitimate employment. He was a well-known member of the Jefferson County community where he was raised and resides.

“There can be no motivation other than greed to explain the defendant’s actions,” Diggs told the court.

“Stands of old growth trees … entail a unique forest ecosystem, the significance of which reaches far beyond the individual trees damaged,” the prosecutor continued. “Simply put, the property stolen and damaged in this case will not be replaced for years to come.”